Random Thoughts: Ken Holland Presser Edition

This morning, Edmonton Oilers General Manager, Ken Holland, spoke to the media after the Oilers were swept in the playoffs by the Winnipeg Jets and I wanted to give a few of my thoughts and takes on a couple of the items he touched on.

One of the things that I and many other Oilers fans thought was interesting was when Ken Holland talked about consulting his leadership group on what he should do this offseason. At least a few times, Holland spoke about wanting to get McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse, and Nugent-Hopkins’ feedback on where they think the team is at and what could be missing, and I honestly think this was one of the highlights. I don’t know about you folks, but I feel like asking the core for their honest assessment of where things are is a way to move this thing forward provided that Holland is truly open to their feedback. I know a lot of us were a little bit bummed out by the lack of substance in this presser, but knowing that these four guys kept coming up whenever he talked about the core was interesting to find out.

I think a lot of us assumed that Mike Smith would probably be back next year given how his season went, and Ken Holland all but confirmed it to the media. As someone that doubted re-signing Smith when it happened this past offseason, I’m going to go ahead and shut my mouth when it comes to doubting the guy because he proved time and time again that he can still compete at this level. What I will say, though, is that I’m nervous about what that contract will look like in terms of salary vs bonuses, and also what will happen to Mikko Koskinen who still has one year left on his deal. I’m cool with bringing Smith back but I think a big part of that would involve Kostco needing to hit the road. How does that happen? I have no idea, but Holland will definitely need to do some tapdancing if he’s going to find a trade partner to get this done. Apparently, Stauffer has been talking about Holland getting creative in order to get rid of Koskinen and that almost makes me nervous to see how that actually plays out.

One of the weirder parts of the presser happened when TSN’s Ryan Rishaug asked a beauty question about whether or not this year’s sweep increases the pressure to spend assets to get better now. Seems like a pretty normal question to ask, right? Yes. The answer, however, was all kinds of strange as Holland went into trades he made with the Red Wings 20 years ago and how they may or may not work out, and that you never really know how things are going to play out. While all of that is true and I would never expect Holland to have some kind of crystal ball, the problem I guess I have with his answer is that while we may not be able to predict the future, I can tell you with 100% certainty that you can’t hit the ball if you never swing either. Now, to be fair, I realize that Holland spent a bunch of assets on 13 seconds of Andreas Athanasiou and that he had very little cap space to work with, but I really would have liked to hear him acknowledge that the clock is ticking and that having only one playoff series win so far in Connor McDavid’s career is simply unacceptable.

Since Ken Holland mentioned that buyouts would be a possibility this year after saying they were not an option last offseason, it makes me wonder who is getting the axe and what that will look like as dead cap space on our books. To me, James Neal would make the most sense to buy out given that he’s no longer an NHL regular and can’t seem to skate anymore, and if Seattle won’t take him in expansion, then the only option may be to buy him out. According to PuckPedia, the total buyout cost of the two years he has left on his deal would be $7,666,667 split over four years, which would land at about $1.9 million per year. It would definitely suck to tack near $2 million onto the dead space portion of our salary cap, but you’d have to think that you could make something happen with the savings. Does anyone else come to mind for a potential buyout?

It’s no secret that Ken Holland was with the Detroit Red Wings for 100 years prior to coming to Edmonton, but what I didn’t expect was how often he would talk about his former club when being asked questions about his current one. That’s not to say that I don’t like a good story, I’ve been known to stay on the phone with Brownlee for hours when he’s dishing old stories from the road,  but I also wonder how much those old war tales should factor into whatever he’s trying to do here. Yes, I think experience matters, but I also think that you can’t necessarily compare what happened in 2008 (tweet above) to what’s going on in 2021. Maybe I’m wrong? Feel free to let me know.

I gotta admit how funny I thought it was that Holland kept referring to The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman as Daniel Nugent-Hopkins throughout the press conference. I mean, I obviously understand how he kept making the mistake considering that RNH is one of his employees and major items on his offseason to-do list, but that didn’t make it any less funny any time he would try to reference Nugent-Bowman. By my count, Holland called the guy by the wrong name at least 5-6 times and it kept getting progressively funnier to me every time he said it. The good news is that DNB seemed to have a good sense of humour about it, but I certainly wish I could be there when they run into each other the next time. My money would be on Nugent-Bowman giving him his full name whether the situation called for it or not. Classic.